Maintainence and Evolution

Finally, once the working application is released, software enters the period we euphemistically label software ``maintainence''. This is often the longest period of an applications life. During this period errors or bugs can be discovered and must be corrected. Requirements may change, and must be attended to. Hardware may change, users expectations may change.

A good design recognized the inevitability of change, and is designed so as to accomodate as many changes as possible with a minimum of revision. Central to this goal is the reduction of coupling between software components.

[audio] 40 [real] 40 Text to accompany slide 40, in Chapter 2 of An Introduction to Object-Oriented Programming